Developed by the team at Zenimax Online Studios, The Elder Scrolls Online merges the unmatched exploration of rich worlds that the franchise is known for with the scale and social aspects of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Players will discover an entirely new chapter of Elder Scrolls history in this ambitious world, set a millennium before the events of Skyrim as the daedric prince Molag Bal tries to pull all of Tamriel into his demonic realm.

If they actually come up with better mechanics than the genre standard, I'm seeing a few reasons to be hopeful for something interesting:
- combat combos between different classes
- no traditional aggro mechanic
- NPCs that don't stand on one side of the room while you kill their buddy on the other
- full voice acting

The way I'm looking at it is whether it's more than the sum of the parts, as those parts are already around in established games. How can Bethesda blend them into a game I'd want to pay money for? Right now it's buzzword bingo, rather than telling me about a game.

I can now begin to hope to at least enjoy the idea of exploring the entire world of Tamriel and experiencing all kinds of Elder Scrolls lore.

Although, with the 3-faction PVP system, you may not be able to easily explore every corner of Tamriel on a single character. From the Eurogamer summary of the article:

Gamers join one of three factions, each with three playable races. There's the north eastern Ebonheart Pact (nords, dark elves, argonians); the southerly Aldmeri Dominion (high elves, wood elves, khajiit); and the north westerly Daggerfall Covenant (bretons, redguards, orcs).

They also mention that not all areas will be in the game at launch, such as the northern parts of Skyrim. I can understand holding back areas of the world that no one has ever seen before, but they should at least fully render all of the familiar parts of the world that people may want to explore right away.

Based on the reputation of the single player games, I think this is tremendously ambitious and I don't think it will be able to live up to people's expectations.

Just from the info I've heard so far, there are going to be so many differences in the fundamental makeup of the game that it will not feel like an Elder Scrolls game. The exploration and lore might be there, but I don't think that will be enough to attract more than just the hard core mmo players long term. It certainly turns off a single-player oriented player like myself, and I don't even think it will attract console players who (like-it-or-not) make up a huge portion of recent Elder Scrolls games sales.

"I never should have taken purchasing advice from Gary Busey.
What the hell was I thinking?" - Paleocon

Just from the info I've heard so far, there are going to be so many differences in the fundamental makeup of the game that it will not feel like an Elder Scrolls game. The exploration and lore might be there, but I don't think that will be enough to attract more than just the hard core mmo players long term. It certainly turns off a single-player oriented player like myself, and I don't even think it will attract console players who (like-it-or-not) make up a huge portion of recent Elder Scrolls games sales.

That's what I'm thinking. What is the concept for this game, beyond being a bigger TES game which costs more for both the developer and presumably the player. Why is it an MMO? What benefit does having 'massive' amounts of players simultaneously bring to the table?

Will console players even care, seeing as TESCO is PC/mac? If they said 'A MMO for next generation consoles at launch', then I'd sit up and take notice as that would be a little different.

Those screenshots... if I hadn't been told they were from an Elder Scrolls game, I'd never guess it. They just don't look like a match for the franchise at all. They look like a mishmash of Rift and [insert generic mmo here].

For those of you unaware, Michael Zenke is one of the content designers of this game.

Does this mean we should sheathe our claws? ;-)

Wouldn't that be like looking all sheepish when you've been caught talking behind someone's back? If you can't be honest about something and are only 'making nice' because someone involved is present (as much as anyone is 'present' on the internet), then isn't that a bad thing? Honest feedback is valuable.

Wonder if he's able to clear up some questions or if its still too early? Buzzword Bingo was an accurate description up thread.

Still too early. ZeniMax runs a quiet ship: only certain folks are allowed to speak about pre-approved items. Hopefully Zenke can get on the conference call at some point to discuss the game, but I wouldn't expect it to happen anytime soon.

1. Anyone who has opened the console or messed around with mods can plainly see that Creation engine is a modified version of Gamebryo. Bethesda can call it an "all new engine" if they want, but for better or worse it is a descendant of Gamebryo.

2. The presence of a hotbar does not necessarily preclude a game from having a more action oriented feel. See Tera for a decent example of this. Who knows what TESO will do, but I'm personally hoping to see something more along those lines.

A few slightly off-topic questions: You know back when Bioware claimed SWTOR would essentially be KOTOR 3, 4 and 5? For those that have played KOTOR and SWTOR, would you still want a 'proper' single-player KOTOR? Did SWTOR scratch the KOTOR itch?

For those of you unaware, Michael Zenke is one of the content designers of this game.

Zenke, I don't recall, but are you a big fan of the Elder Scrolls games? 'cause if so, that alleviates some of my fears.

Also, while I'm not a fan of the art style, and have grave doubts about this game, I'd be kidding myself if I said I'm not going to at least try it when it finally releases. It's still my favorite game franchise and I have to give it a fair shake.

Actually, I like those screenshots. The characters do look in the vein of RIFT but with more life to them. A lot of RIFT's people looked stiff. I think TESO has added in more color like LOTRO. I don't think you can say that a mix of RIFT's realism and LOTRO's color is a bad thing.

The environment concepts look great. There is definitely one towering spires shot that reminds my of locations in Oblivion.

I think I recall reading that this is set a millenia before Skyrim so that should give them a lot of lore and locale leeway.

I think I recall reading that this is set a millenia before Skyrim so that should give them a lot of lore and locale leeway.

Yup, I read that last night. The other thing I like about it is that it (hopefully) establishes TESO as distinctly separate from the ongoing TES single player rpg's (which they damn well better keep making...). TESO can explore events during an earlier part of Tamriel's history, while the main TES games can keep moving the lore forward and giving us the history through books and quests like they've been doing.

That's my hope at least. I don't want Skyrim to be the last true Elder Scrolls game.

1. Anyone who has opened the console or messed around with mods can plainly see that Creation engine is a modified version of Gamebryo. Bethesda can call it an "all new engine" if they want, but for better or worse it is a descendant of Gamebryo.

2. The presence of a hotbar does not necessarily preclude a game from having a more action oriented feel. See Tera for a decent example of this. Who knows what TESO will do, but I'm personally hoping to see something more along those lines.

With the 3rd person comment and this being an Elder Scrolls i suspect/hope that we'll be seeing something between what Tera and Darkfall or MO has done.

My main concern on the surface of things is they're talking about repeating a lot of mistakes recent MMORPGs like WAR have made. Not in the sense that they were badly made or designed, but that the gaming world has already started the slow process of moving on from the classic Everquest/WoW school of design.

Repeating DAoC and mixing in some Elder Scrolls elements is not filling me with confidence. Pointing out that you have a lot of DAoC and Ultima Online vets in your design group means something different now than it would have six years ago.

This is an early preview. Now is the time when they're supposed to be shotgunning sunshine and puppies up my ass and telling me rainbows will come out my ears. That preview was oddly apologetic.

“Respect is one of the great treasures of being human, ennobling us, and opening us to love that nourishes our basic humanity.” ~ Roshi Joan Halifax

My main concern on the surface of things is they're talking about repeating a lot of mistakes recent MMORPGs like WAR have made. Not in the sense that they were badly made or designed, but that the gaming world has already started the slow process of moving on from the classic Everquest/WoW school of design.

Repeating DAoC and mixing in some Elder Scrolls elements is not filling me with confidence. Pointing out that you have a lot of DAoC and Ultima Online vets in your design group means something different now than it would have six years ago.

This is an early preview. Now is the time when they're supposed to be shotgunning sunshine and puppies up my ass and telling me rainbows will come out my ears. That preview was oddly apologetic.

Which is indeed very unusual. So much so that i'm hoping what comes out of this is some kind of hybrid that's able to bridge the gap between those of us who enjoy skill based, hardcore mmos with folks who prefer the WoW style. TES is the perfect setting to try that with the world being so damn huge.

Many games have succeeded with strong pve roots and pvp as an afterthought, or basic and underdeveloped. No games have succeeded with strong pvp roots and pve as an afterthought, or basic and underdeveloped.

They cannot follow in the footsteps of WAR and just coat this with TES pve paint. I know this isn't profound but you would be surprised at how many companies still don't get this. Or they think that adding one whizbang feature is sufficient. (read: voice acting) DAOC for its time had better pve than WAR did. But DAOC pve won't work in a modern game. Its a good foundation but pve in modern games need more cohesiveness and complexity.

Pve needs to have most of these:
Story quests that address the issue of progress gating for low and mid level solo players
solo vs group fights that address issues with out of control numbers on higher level kill quests
longer solo fights that offer more strategy than killing trash
SWTOR style companions that alleviate forced group progress gating for solos, duos and trios
raids heroic and normal or ideally a difficulty slider with several notches
dungeons or instances with a difficulty slider